A feast on clams and fish: see quotations.
1840. July 4. At a mass-meeting in Rhode Island, a clam-bake and chowder were prepared for nearly 10,000 persons. (See Bartlett.)
1842. The Great Clam Bake the other day in Rhode Island went off with immense eclat.—Phila. Spirit of the Times, Sept. 3.
1843. They did not like [John Tyler] because he had such a man as Daniel Webster for his prime minister—a man who came out and declared on Long Island, at a clambake, and in Virginia … that he was a Jeffersonian Democrat.—Mr. Gordon of New York in the House of Repr., Jan. 5: Cong. Globe, p. 125.
1845. “The First Clam Bake”:—a poem by “Everpoint.”—St. Louis Reveille, Dec. 29.
1860. Senator Douglas attended a mammoth clam bake at Rocky Point, R.I., on Thursday last.—Richmond Enquirer, Aug. 7, p. 2/6.
1888. [They all] talk that way when they go on a clam-bake or a … chowder excursion.—N.Y. Herald, March 25 (Farmer).
